Fear of the Dark
by Market Square Heroes
Summary: A ghost proceeds his reign of terror, but this time there are no second thoughts, no regrets. True evil will finally be unleashed. But who will be caught up in the middle of all this blood spilling with passionate rage?...Beware, death has come early. R
1. Devil's Waitin'

** Hey all!! Okay, this story is quite a bit different from all my others. I've always been fearful of making Erik or any other character for that matter, really DARK! But I thought, what the hell!! This story is going to have a happy end anyway so I might as well let rip and go really DARK at the beginning...besides I think you will ALL agree, it becomes very interesting! Especially how characters change over time etc...okay I don't want to give the game away!! hehe :D **

** Despite this being really dark, it is also a romance. Should be interesting how this one turns out!! (rubs hands together) Anyway!**

** I'm pretty sure that no one has written a fic like this...or I should blimming well hope not:) **

** Disclaimer: I do not own The Phantom of the Opera musical, book, film..blah blah..or its characters..or the actual Opera Garnier itself!!! Would be fantastic if I did, and I would certainly boast about it quite a bit if I did own all of these things...however unwise that may be :)**

** Many things haven't been explained in this first chappie, I just wanted to get the ball rolling...more to what meets the eye I assure you :) Enjoy! **

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Paris

Friday 13th November 2007

Once again, the Palais Garnier started swarming with people for that evening's opening gala. The next season of entertainment had begun.

Despite its magnificent size, the grand foyer was crammed full of expectant people, creating a buzz of excitement float around in the air. There were men and women of different ages and class, and needless to say, with different intentions. Most came for the plays or the experience, but others came to be seen. Looking at the scene play out before you, if it hadn't been for their clothes, you would think that not much had changed since the late 19th century. In fact, this was exactly the thought that passed through one young lady's mind as she entered the Opera House. A woman called Melissa

A silhouette of a woman stood by the side of the grand entranceway into the Opera House. The gentle night breeze picked up her loose wisps of curls, causing them to blow about loosely behind her. Her light green eyes gazed up dreamily at the golden statues and marble pillars that framed the great staircase. Although Melissa couldn't see over many of the people's heads in front of her due to her fairly short stature, she could still see enough as the ceiling seemed to carry on upwards for what seemed like acres. Of course this was an illusion, but she found herself lost in the numerous paintings and decorations that adorned the full area of the ceiling and walls. So enraptured by the beauty and romance of the building, she had hardly noticed the many people behind her shuffling their way discreetly past in order to get inside until someone quite rudely shoved them self in causing her to stumble and almost trip over the threshold.

Whipping her head around, she angrily stared at the culprit of a person who had ruined her awed like trance. Melissa met the icy blue eyes of an older woman who reeked of a sickly and pungent perfume. The woman's rouged lips twitched with annoyance and then she turned from Melissa and made her way into the ever growing crowd, swishing her ruffled baby pink dress behind her. A final waft of the woman's overpowering perfume caused Melissa's nose to wrinkle in distaste. Inwardly she made a silent plea, hoping that she would not be sitting near or next to that woman during the rest of that night's performance.

Melissa shook her head, trying to wipe out her aggravation. After all, she didn't want that little unpleasant encounter to ruin the rest of the evening. Smoothing down her hair, she made herself look more presentable and then made her way into the crowd like the others before her.

In no time at all, she was in the main part of the theatre where a man waited patiently at the side to check her ticket. All the while, she searched her handbag frantically moving her hand around within it. She then sighed in relief as she saw a small piece of card buried underneath her makeup bag. However, there was another card lying with it which made her suck in a breath almost immediately. Pain flickered through her eyes for a moment, but then she was broken from her reverie when the ticket man coughed quietly, hinting for her to hurry up.

She bit her lip and took out the ticket nearest to her and handed it to the man. After a second of inspecting, he indicated to where she was to be seated and handed back the ticket. Melissa hastily took her leave and walked to her seat.

Melissa was surprised by the position of her seat to say the least. It was only about nine rows from the stage and sat almost smack bam in the middle of the whole row. She imagined that these seats had been sold at a very high price. By a price that Melissa was sure she would have been unable to pay. You see, she had won the two tickets from a lucky dip that her collage had organised just before the summer holidays.

But what of that second ticket? Well, let us just say that she had been turned down - and not in the most sensitive of ways either. In fact, Melissa had only got a call from her 'were to be date' just an hour prior to her arriving at the Opera Garnier. She felt all that preparing of hair, clothes and makeup had gone to waste, and who can blame her? All of that day she had been full of bubbling excitement at the prospect of sharing a romantic evening with the guy she fancied for what had seemed like a lifetime. Melissa had thought that he had finally taken care to notice her and that he wouldn't miss the evening for the world. Well, how sadly disillusioned she was.

Melissa turned her head to the right and rested her gaze at the empty seat beside her. Pouting, she picked up her handbag and coat, and unceremoniously dumped them on that seat. The thought of whacking him around the head with her heavy black leather handbag cheered her up some what, but inside, she couldn't help the growing feeling of heartache settling in.

Then the lights dimmed, causing a silence to creep over the audience. Music began to play and the stage curtains started to quiver. She leant back into her seat and the thoughts that had been plaguing her mind previously were left discarded...at least, only for the time being.

The curtains parted.

However, little did Melissa and everybody else in the theatre know - there had been a dark figure lurking within the shadows.

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He inspected the crowd of people in the foyer from his hiding place…searching for a person to catch his eye - his next victim. 

Yes, you read correctly. His 'next victim'. This man had a murderous streak...in fact, he couldn't even be described as a man. He had a man's appearance to people who he appeared to of course, but he was so much more...or should I say, so much less than that?

His eyes scanned the area and fell on a small figure which stood eerily still at the entrance. He stared, curious as to why that person hadn't immediately entered. Then the person's features became clearer as they moved just one timid step forward before halting again. It was a young woman and he estimated that she was probably in her very early twenties.

He noted that she wore a simply decorated short black skirt with plain brown tights underneath. In addition, she wore a purple Chinese style top which had sewn in leaves and flowers in gold thread on the short sleeves and high neck collar. To finish her outfit off, she wore purple fairy shoes decorated with gold and brown beads and sequins. Part of her dark blonde hair had been clipped back, but the rest of her loose curls and waves cascaded down to about her mid back. All in all her appearance was modest looking, but tasteful and eloquent.

She possessed quite high cheekbones and pale pink lips, but the thing that most stood out to him were her eyes. They were light green in colour as they scanned the area before them. Once they passed the place where he was lurking, and their penetrating gaze had rendered him immobile for just a few seconds. Her beauty seemed to remind him of a woman he had known a very long time ago...they did not look alike, not in the slightest...but it was her beauty. A beauty that he had been so horridly denied throughout his whole living life, and even now. Anger welled up inside him. At one point in time, he had had a weakness for beauty, but ever since that _day,_ he had learned to loathe it. It reminded him of _her, _what he couldn't have, and what he wasn't.

He had made a decision. This girl was to be his next victim and he vowed that his horrid scarred and distorted face would be the last thing that she would see before succumbing to darkness...

"Such a beautiful woman as herself is worthy of a beautiful death" He mused. Then a low bitter laugh erupted from his grim lips before he swirled around and left the scene below him.

"Three hours until I become Death himself once again!"

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Out on the corner with cast iron blood  
10,000 or more with hearts on the run  
They say i might die and I may be cold  
I may have no jesus I may have no soul  
In prison I hear there's time to be good  
But the first thing you see is the last thing you should

They say theres a passin' where all stand to judge  
But the devil's a waitin' with Christ like a son  
When the look comes your way best say was I  
For the reasons you hold give reasons to die  
The calling's impatient and cause never won  
But the last one to say it may last through the flood

I'm born in weary but life's just begun  
And i've run from the reasons and run to the gun  
They say i'm the killer and thy will be done  
And the doors won't be open when I finally become

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**Either at the beginning or end of each chapter I like to write down the lyrics of a song that reflects what is going on or a person's character, intentions etc..just for those of you who are a bit "What the?" So yeah, I tend to name my chapters after the names of songs. So this one was by BRMC called "Devil's waitin' "! woo **

**Please review and let me know what you think! Like everybody else writing on here, I love reviews and support...because how am I supposed to know whether this is good or not or if I should carry on etc etc? So please, review :) **


	2. Haunted

**Yipee...new chapter!**

**Just want to say a BIG thankyou for those lovely people who reviewed :) (hugs all round) and those who have shown an intersest in this story and I hope may continue to read it. Anyway, happy readings...a little more action in this chapter! WOOO!**

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She stood up with the rest of the audience and applauded furiously as the cast took their final bows before disappearing behind the curtains. 

Melissa had found the opera astounding of course. She couldn't help but admire the versatile talents of whom all the performers possessed. It was quite unlike anything that she had seen or imagined it to be - and the fact that she was standing in a most renowned and historical building had added to her brightening mood all throughout the performance.

She took a glance around the theatre, observing everyone's bright, cheerful and jovial faces as they continued to clap. Melissa then let her gaze travel along all the boxes around the edges of the theatre in awe (and slightly enviously - although she knew she was lucky to even be there!) until she came across a box to the right hand side of the stage.

What Melissa saw almost made her jump out of her skin and scream if she had not been so conscious of the people around her. Up in that exact box, she saw a dark shadow hovering behind a deep scarlet curtain. A chill descended down upon her and she shivered involuntarily. Not believing her eyes, she blinked twice and then looked up again. Alas, the shadow had gone, and in its place a middle aged couple could be seen just preparing themselves to leave.

People started to leave their seats also and file out of the theatre once the curtains were drawn. However, Melissa stayed put, still staring absentmindedly at the stage. She was relaying what she had seen just a few minutes ago. Somehow that image of the shadow still stayed stubbornly wedged inside her mind, even though Melissa had convinced herself that what she had seen had just been a trick of the light. _I mean, come on! Hovering in mid air is virtually physically impossible!_

Melissa reluctantly raised her head again to face that exact same box and found it to be completely empty. _Hah! There you go, no one is there._ Despite this reassurance, she still couldn't shrug off the nagging feeling that someone had been watching her...and still was. Even though it had been impossible to decipher any of that darkened figure's facial features, she still felt that it had been staring straight at her.

She shook her head vigorously - earning quite a few worried glances from the last passers by who were making their way out of the theatre - _the over-excitement must be getting to me, I think._ After this conclusion, Melissa rose from her seat and looked around. She was surprised to see that she was indeed the very last person to leave that part of the theatre. All the other hundreds of seats were completely unoccupied. She marvelled at how serenely quiet the once lively, bursting and buoyant theatre had become and decided to sit down again for a few minutes. After all, what could it hurt?

If she only knew what was to happen next, she would have thought twice about savouring the so called "calm" atmosphere that the empty theatre falsely evoked.

She opened her eyes and was startled to see the theatre's lights had already been turned all off except the ones either side of the doorways marked "Exit". A chill - much like the one she felt when she had seen the hovering figure - weaved through her legs and upwards, causing her black skirt to ruffle about and the hair in Melissa's face to whip back sharply. Her back straightened and eyes widened as she found herself paralysed with shock at the sudden coldness and swift movements that seemed to be sweeping around her. She felt the sensation almost strangely similar to a cold and bitter winter wind, but Melissa knew full well that there were no windows or doors in sight that could be open which would let such a breeze enter.

Melissa steadily rose to her feet and felt her knees quiver from the growing freezing sensation. When she dared herself to lower her eyes to the source of all the coldness, she saw a dark grey, almost black mist swirling about the floor and start spiralling up and around her legs.

"What the-"

Disbelief at what she was seeing and feeling soon turned to shock, to panic, and then to fear. She saw the black mist starting encircle more tightly around her legs, almost like a human's arms were rising from out of the floor. Then long claw like fingers began to form rapidly at the two end parts of the mist and clasp themselves firmly around Melissa's thighs.

Her breathing changed to being irregular and shallow - again, she couldn't believe her eyes. Melissa could actually feel the black, sharp and jagged claws dig mercilessly into her delicate skin. They felt more like solid pieces of matter despite the fact that they were formed by a dark cloud of whirling mist.

She had been rendered immobile for just a few seconds out of shock, but once she had inwardly slapped herself a few times, she then started to take immediate action against whatever was gradually pulling her further and further down to the floor. After all, she knew all to well that she had to act then and there before getting any sort of answers explaining this rather unusual and scary phenomena.

Whipping her head up again, she caught sight of the chairs in front of her and decided to grab hold of them as a support. With her hands firmly grasping the seats in front, Melissa started to pull away from the tightening claws' grip around her thighs. Her face contorted due to all the physical strain at trying to release herself from the black misty hands - after a hard struggle she then felt the hands beginning to loosen so Melissa took the chance to lean fully over the seat in front of her so that her hands reached the arm rests, and held onto them instead. This provided her with extra leverage to lift herself out from the clutches of those formidable claws. Again, she pulled and pulled until she heard the faint ripping sound of tights and felt a searing pain shoot through her legs.

Just then victory seem to smile on Melissa as she felt herself tumble forward and fall head first into the seat that she had been leaning on. However, relief soon swept away as she felt something warm and wet trickle down her leg. It didn't take her long to realise that whilst she was tearing herself away from death's hold, the dark claws had ripped through her soft flesh, creating streaks of blood to run down both of her thighs and begin to dampen her tights around the area where they had ripped along with her skin.

Without much thought, she clumsily got up from the seat that she had previously fallen onto, trying her hardest to ignore the throbbing pain in her legs and forehead. This proved difficult as she stumbled a few times whilst trying to turn back around to face the row behind her.

At first her vision was blurry but after blinking a few times she found that the black haze was no longer sweeping along the floor like before, but had risen up, towering over her by about a good two metres. Somehow the mist was becoming darker, indicating that the swirling dark cloud was building up out of nothing - increasing in density and spiralling grey and white patterns could be traced in the black mass of cloud.

"What in devil's name is going on?"

Melissa took a step back, but only felt herself bump into yet another row of seats behind her. She felt trapped...the mist still continuing to advance towards her. Then all of a sudden, the ball of mist surged forwards and swept right around and into her face. This caused Melissa to start to cough and splutter ferociously from inhaling of the choking smoky like mist that was surrounding her. Her throat felt like a thousand shards of glass had pierced it simultaneously as she inhaled once again out of instinct for search of pure air - however, it did not come and once again Melissa started off another fit of coughing. She began feeling light-headed from the pressure on her lungs caused by the toxic fumes that twisted around her nostrils and were breathed in once again in her vain attempt to find clean air.

Then unexpectantly the mist cleared, leaving Melissa leaning over one of the chairs looking as if she had almost been suffocated. Her face was almost snow white which created a sharp contrast from her red rimmed eyes as she started trying to take measured breaths and regain her composure. She did not like this situation at all...not in the slightest. By this point, Melissa was shivering in fright and in fear of what was yet to come.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" She tried in vain to keep her voice from shaking...but it was rather difficult considering her lungs were short of air.

As soon as the mist had completely disappeared, a low and mocking cackle could be heard causing Melissa to spin around trying to find the source of such an evil sound. She was sure that it was mocking her and she felt a surge of both anger at this person who was evidently toying with her, and scared. _What person can send clouds in your face - let alone make them take the form of hands? _She shuddered but tried once again to get answers out of this bodiless taunter.

"Show yourself! I'll...I'll call the police if you don't stop th-this-" Melissa broke off as soon as she heard a voice speak.

"I don't think calling the police will do you much good, my dear." By the low and deeply resonating tone of this person's voice, she knew that this tantalizer was indeed a man. By the disturbingly calm tone of voice in which that simple sentence was said sent her running out of her isle almost instantaneously- personally something that she felt she should have done when the first opportunity had arose. _Well too late for regrets_ Melissa thought.

Heavy footfalls came to an abrupt halt when she heard yet another low cackling laugh...but this time it was coming from right next to her left ear. Melissa screamed and swirled round to face the person responsible but yet again she saw no one but the vacant rows of seats behind her.

"Do not think that you can escape me..." Melissa did not wait until he finished off his sentence, but broke into a run towards the doors marked "Exit" instead.

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Long lost words whisper slowly to me  
Still can't find what keeps me here  
When all this time I've been so hollow inside  
I know you're still there

Watching me, wanting me  
I can feel you pull me down  
Fearing you, loathing you  
I won't let you pull me down

Hunting you, I can smell you - alive  
Your heart pounding in my head

Watching me, wanting me  
I can feel you pull me down  
Saving me, raping me, watching me

Watching me, wanting me  
I can feel you pull me down  
Fearing you... loathing you  
I won't let you pull me down

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**Haunted by Evanescence..changed a few words to fit hehe :) Again, please review. :) **


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